John Newell, painter and activist

Interesting what can give a person the impetus to get seriously started on a career. In the case of Pickering artist, John Newell, it was a gift of “spoiled” art supplies – paints that had been frozen during shipment, plus brushes and canvas, that an early girlfriend’s mom had given him when he had little money and no job in the early 1970s. With these supplies, he launched into a series of paintings that, to his surprise and delight, sold really well. He has worked at various types of employment and self-employment in the intervening years, but has maintained a vigorous career making art ever since.

Newell says he has been drawing non-stop since the age of 4, having been given instruction by his father, who also sparked in him a life-long interest in the environment (he’s a high-profile activist in Durham Region), by having him help plant trees at a very early age. Being “the artist” in his classes throughout public and high school reinforced his self-image as a creative soul; and a large mural on an environmental theme he painted in his last year of high school solidified his reputation.

Like most visual artists, however, Newell had to turn to other occupations to survive financially and used his considerable innate aptitudes to start his own tropical fish business (starting when he was 12, in 1962! through to 1983) and then retail interior design (self-taught) with various employers before starting his own retail design business in 1993. Many of his business involvements required extensive travel across Canada and Newell took advantage of these opportunities to paint landscapes “en plein air” (outside, on location) in the many locales he found himself visiting.

Newell paints eclectically, with subjects ranging from straightforward landscapes to environmental polemics to allegorical works and the even the odd portrait. He has just surfaced from a lengthy battle with a serious physical disability and is now focusing his new-found energies on several new series of paintings and is gearing up to turn his considerable activist skills toward promoting on behalf of the plight of visual artists and the dearth of political and financial support for them in our region.

See John Newell’s work by connecting with him on Facebook or contact him at jondry@sympatico.ca